Democracy and Iraq

Submitted by Vinodgupt (United States), Mar 1, 2006 at 14:23

While the aims of President Bush in attempting to establish democracy in Iraq are very noble and have to be admired, he made one fundamental miscalculation. Democracy, like dictatorship, cannot be imposed from above much less from outside. It has to come from within every citizen of the country. The people have to be ready not only politically but also ideologically for such an exercise. Many Islamic scholars have repeatedly said democracy is unIslamic. There is much truth to this paradigm. It is not without reason that one hardly finds a democratic Muslim country. Many tried but reverted back some form of dictatorship.

The cases of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are prime examples. The same people sharing the same history, the same culture or almost so other than religion. India despite its ethnic, religious, language, cultural and other multitudes of differences has been a stable democracy ever since its independence in 1947 while both Pakistan and Bangladesh have tried democracy but time and again revrted back to dictatorship. The only major difference among the three is that India is still a majority Hindu country while the other two are Islamic.

Vinodgupt

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